Stakeholders begin NACS action plan validation

Stakeholders, comprising select Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media in the fight against corruption, converged on the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Conference Centre, Kado, Abuja, yesterday, and began the validation process of the 2022-2026 Action Plan of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) document.

The document will guide the implementation of NACS through the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Committee, being supervised by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), chaired by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi.

Major stakeholders made striking contributions geared towards producing a clean copy in a few days.

Declaring open the exercise, the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Beatrice Jedy-Agba, represented by the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Victoria Ojogbane, said the Federal Government would ensure strict implementation, as the nation was expecting the strategy to clean up areas of distrust.

She said: “Whatever we say here is in the interest of the nation. It is a document for our guidance. It is necessary to give opportunity for millions of Nigerians to critique the document.”

MEANWHILE, the European Union (EU) has added Plateau State as the sixth focal state in the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (ROLAC 2) phase of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).

This was disclosed, yesterday, by the Project Manager of ROLAC 2, Dr Emmanuel Uche, during the opening ceremony of the validation process at NAF Centre, Abuja.

Represented by Associate Project Officers of ROLAC 2, Pwanakei Dala, the Project Manager said other states already included were Adamawa, Anambra, Edo, Kano and Lagos, adding that Abia was on the verge of being keyed in, adding that the organisation’s Head of Programme, Danladi Plang, had directed that the processes be carried out to actualise it. EU-funded ROLAC 2 International IDEA has its headquarters in Abuja.

He commended the Solicitor General of the Federation and Jedy-Agba and FMoJ’s facilitator of the programme, Dr Ada Chidi-Igbokwe, the media and CSOs for their drive towards sensitisation of various states on transparency and accountability in governance.

The Guardian gathered that the mode of assessing the qualifying states included reform appetite and commitment to good governance, eschewing corruption, carrying out accountability and transparency in the day-to-day running of government.